-LRB- CNN -RRB- In the gentle yet fiercely warm surrounds of the southern Ugandan countryside , Mwanja Banuli looks on as farmhands fill his truck with sugar cane .

Packing this rough , woody crop is heavy going and making sure every inch of space is utilized is key .

Transport costs money , after all , and this humble sugar farmer has lots of costs to consider .

`` There are many challenges in this business , '' Banuli says . `` Rent for our land costs about $ 300 and then you need to pay people to clear the land .

`` You have to hire a tractor for ploughing and tilling the land . When you add up all these expenses , it 's a big investment . ''

Searching for Sugarman

In Uganda , sugar is big business .

This particular batch is headed for Kakira Sugar Limited -- one of the country 's oldest and largest factories .

Kakira was founded by Muljibai Madhvani , an immigrant from the Indian subcontinent in the late 1920s .

It 's a company still going strong to this day .

`` What you see in the background is the first mill that was installed in 1930 to crush only 150 tons of cane , '' explains Kenneth Barungi , assistant general manager of Kakira at the site of the company 's nearby factory .

'' -LRB- Kakira -RRB- started expanding every 10 years , every 20 years , modernizing , acquiring more land , introducing irrigation , expanding the crushing capacity . By -LRB- the 1970s -RRB- they were producing about 83,000 tons of sugar . ''

`` That was about 50 % of all the sugar produced in Uganda . At that time they -LRB- Kakira -RRB- contributed to about 53 % of the national GDP ... just because of manufacturing and industry , '' he added .

Dawn of dictatorship

It was at this time , however , that history intervened in the shape of one of the 20th century 's most brutal rulers .

After a military coup in 1971 , army commander Idi Amin Dada seized power . The former heavyweight boxer made himself Uganda 's president and a brutal dictatorship followed .

The often erratic Amin praised Hitler and said the German dictator `` was right to burn six million Jews . '' He even bizarrely offered to be king of Scotland if asked .

Within a year he had expelled the country 's Asian population , numbering around 35,000 .

After almost 50 years , the Madhvanis were no longer welcome in Uganda .

Those who stayed , did so at their own risk .

`` When Idi Amin told every Asian to leave , they all left the country and went mainly to the UK , '' Barungi continued , adding that he believes this when Uganda began to economically fall apart .

`` All industries collapsed , all international trade collapsed . There was no longer available foreign exchange to import machinery . Even if you imported the machinery you did n't have technical expertise here to run such industries . ''

`` Within a few years Kakira Sugar Industries had collapsed , but so had infrastructure in Uganda . Social services , everything had collapsed . ''

A new start

After Idi Amin was deposed in 1979 , however , some of the ejected population slowly started coming back to Uganda .

Among the returnees were the Madhvanis . The country they left behind , however , was a very different place .

`` The factory was a skeleton , '' Barungi said . `` There was no longer a sugar plantation , the houses were occupied by anybody . There was no business to run so it -LRB- the plantation -RRB- was just an empty shell . ''

The Madhvanis quickly borrowed money from the World Bank and the African Development Bank and set about rebuilding their business .

It has grown rapidly over the last 25 years and now produces 18,000 tons of sugar -LRB- a year -RRB- , Barungi said .

But the effects of the macabre , harrowing events of recent history still linger .

A sweeter deal ?

Some reports suggest some black Ugandan workers resented how certain sections of the Indian mercantile class treated them .

These days , however , Kakira says it strives to promote a responsible philosophy for how it interacts with its workers .

Not only is this the right way to engage with people in its employ , they believe , it also improves productivity and staff mobility .

Kakira has built schools and hospitals to cater for their staff and their families while the company has also founded the Kakira Outgrowers Rural Development Fund -LRB- KORD -RRB- , an NGO that provides the likes of workshops , loans and other services for its contractors .

Besides nearly 8,000 staff members , Kakira has almost as many contract workers in the shape of farmers , like Mwanja Banuli .

They farm the lands neighboring the plantations and are contracted to Kakira , supplying 70 % of its sugarcane needs .

`` To be able to sustain business you want agricultural farmers , plantation workers , you want factory workers and the vision of Muljibhai Mudhvani was to develop human resources , '' Barungi said .

This enlightened approach saw KORD awarded with a best NGO-business partnership award from the Ugandan Manufacturers Association .

But it 's the positive impact on individual lives that offers the biggest reward for many in the community .

`` Before KORD I was just useless , '' said Beatrice Katende , who has received assistance from the body 's programs . `` I used to work as a casual laborer for other people in the community digging in their gardens to get some income .

`` When KORD came into existence we learned to farm , to save and how to be self-sufficient . ''

Through offering a hand up to people like Katende , Kakira hope to help themselves as well as provide assistance to other areas of the local economy .

`` The main vision was to always make sure that there is labor supply always available to work at the factory . The excess can go and work in other industries in the country , '' Barungi said .

More from Marketplace Africa

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Kakira Sugar Limited is one of Uganda 's oldest companies

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The company was shuttered when its owning Indian family was expelled during the reign of Idi Amin

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Today , Kakira is once again employing thousands of people in Uganda